


To Be Made Whole Again

by ThatDarnLakeSiren



Category: Abzû (Video Game)
Genre: Existential Crisis, Exploration, Hope, I just finished the game and have Thoughts, My general thoughts on the game, Projecting through the Diver, Spoilers, good ending, headcanons, it slaps, self discovery, some fluff (?) with a shark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25723666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDarnLakeSiren/pseuds/ThatDarnLakeSiren
Summary: She'd only ever known the sea- she'd awoken here, with no memory of anything else. But there are hints, whispers, soft murmurs scattered about... indicating that there may have been more to her story than she had initially thought...
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	To Be Made Whole Again

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [To See the Sun Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22634164) by [22FluffyTheSpider123](https://archiveofourown.org/users/22FluffyTheSpider123/pseuds/22FluffyTheSpider123). 



> The fic I linked is one I read just before writing my own- so some themes from the author has filtered through, such as the Diver being female, making little chirps, and having a "core" and the like. I really just- like the work itself, so go read it!

She awoke in the sea. The sunlight filtered down from above, dancing across the sand and the plants and the many moving bodies of the fish that called this place their home. She was weightless, floating. She shifted, kicking her feet and flailing her arms- as she shifted, she saw long fins along her feet. She was uncoordinated- unused to motion in the water, weightless and yet, pressure pressed on her from all sides. 

It was a fight, almost, a definite struggle, to move in the water- but there was no sense of danger or urgency. Just a quiet sort of determination, to get a grasp of motion, in a familiar way. Like a child taking their first steps, or a bird taking shaky flight. Before long, she had a sense of what she was doing, gliding smoothly along the seafloor.

A fish burst out of a nearby patch of seaweed and she started, running face-first into a rock as her limbs flailed. She made an upset chirp, trying to push off of it. Swimming wasn't as easy as she had thought... it would take more practice. But that was okay. She would get the hang of it.

* * *

The adorable little droid she'd found was like a friend. She would chirp, and it would chirp back. She chirped and chirped and chirped, happy enough to hear an answering _chirp chirp chirp_.

And it was _helpful_ , too! Helping to cut a path forward. Shortly after, however, a great white shark came out of seemingly nowhere, destroying her little friend in one heavy, crushing bite. She'd chirped and chirped and chirped, distraught and afraid, but the great white paid her no mind, swimming off... she followed, taking the only path forward.

* * *

The sea was so beautiful... that odd place, infinite and aglow and bright- she felt at peace here, she felt safe... she felt like there was something she needed to do. That soft blue glow, that she took from within herself, and offered to this place... full of Vitality, of Life... she wasn't sure how she had gathered it, not exactly, but giving _back_ , giving back felt right... but when had she taken?

But, it revitalized that bit of the sea... lifeless and dull, dying... it saddened her to find these places, and it was with great joy that she took steps to revitalize them. 

The murals... they were odd. They were beautiful and lovely and they held a story... and ancient one. Hinted at something far bigger than herself. Who were these people that came before her? What were they doing with the Vitality and Life? And why did one look so similar to her...?

She would piece it together. Maybe the Diver in the murals was her- maybe this was who she had been in the past.

* * *

The deep, deep sea, twilight zone, just beyond the sun's rays... it scared her. It felt vast, and empty, and she felt so, so alone...

And it was filled with great dangers. Big metallic triangle, pyramid-like devices. They glowed a dull reddish-yellow, and beeped angrily at her, a warning, as she drew too close to them. 

She tried to stay away, but she strayed too close by mistake-

The triangle BURST with an explosion of pain and disorientation, shockwaves sweeping through her, sending her floating limply away... she shook herself off, rubbing at her arms, trying to dispel the lingering buzzing, the sensation deeply unpleasant. She looked over at the evil triangle, chirping her upset at the evil, evil contraption.

Unfortunately, many more of the evil triangles blocked her path... the shock of pain and struggle to move was deeply unpleasant, but she quickly found if she got jut past the evil triangle she'd float in the direction she wanted to, so she wouldn't be pushed _away_ at least.

The entire experience was deeply unpleasant... and made her question the triangular doorways she'd gone through previously, and the triangular prompts she'd sometimes see in her visor, indicating important things, or something she could interact with. But this final door...

The Great White was here, now. Had swam right on through, but- when she saw it, struggling beneath the weight of a larger device, getting zapped- being _hurt_ \- she couldn't leave it like that. It hurt, sharp buzzing in her hands, but she strained and pulled until the great white could free itself...

And then... the mother of all evil triangles lay before her. She was frightened, and yet... she wanted answers. She wanted to see what was inside. And... and the great white shark might get stuck or hurt again- and it wasn't evil, not at all- if all it new of machinery were these evil, evil triangles, then it was little wonder that it lashed out against her little droid-friend.

And so, into the belly of the beast she went...

* * *

The world was awash in red. It was inescapable. Evil triangles lay scattered everywhere in busted, broken, degrading metal halls. She was zapped over and over as she struggled to navigate the halls- it made her sluggish, made getting out of range of more shocks ever-more difficult. 

She finally came to a room with a sort of... control board. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew how to activate it- and- 

Here were her answers. And they were not what she had expected.

The machine, the evil triangles... it was stealing the Vitality. So different from the murals of the ancient folks, taking only what they needed, and giving back to the sea what they didn't. Give and take, push and pull, like the oceans currents. But the evil triangles, they took and took and _took_. And they never gave back.

And then- she saw- herself. It couldn't be anything else- it was her mirror-image, and then it... then it showed her _insides_. They didn't- it wasn't like- it looked mechanical. She, was mechanical... 

She pressed hands to her torso, feeling against the exterior of herself, the subtle shift of the "flesh" of herself, feeling it, yet not... it was jarring, the idea that she might not be a being of flesh and blood... worse still, was the sense of wrongdoing, of guilt, of fear- was she... built in this awful, awful, evil triangle? And if so... were her actions undoing's, giving back when she had taken and taken from the sea? Given when the machine had taken too much- had she been used to take too much!?

She didn't need to breathe, had wondered at it, as the dolphins and whales surfaced for breaths- she had no gills, either, like the fish of the sea... she did not need to do anything of the sort. 

She brushed her hands up, up her torso, pressing pressure, more than the sea that wrapped around her in an all-encompassing embrace. Brushed up, then brushed back down, smoothing down the surface of her legs, then back up again. It was soothing... in time, she calmed down.

Whatever she had done before, before she had awoken in the sea... she was trying to make things right. She had given back to the sea, without a clue of what she was doing- but now she knew, and she wasn't about to stop now. This evil place, it was crumbling, breaking, but still.... alive, still breathing, its heart, its core still beating. She could sense it. Feel it, somewhere in her own core.

Steeling herself, she continued onwards.


End file.
